Shoe-fastening



(No Model.)

B. F. SPIGEB.

SHOE FASTENING.

Patented A1214, 1893.

i UNITED STATES PATENT Erica.

ERNEST F. SPICER, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHOE-FASTENING.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. 494,825, dated April 4, 1893. Application filed October 1'7, 1892. Serial No. 449,103- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ERNEST F. SP1cER,a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fastenings for Shoes and Garments, of which the following is a specification.

Thisinvention relates to fastenings for shoes and analogous articles, the object being to provide an improved fastening device to be used in place of lacin gs, and yet having much the same appearance on the shoe, and the invention consists in the novel construction of said fastening and in means for engaging the same with a shoe, all as hereinafter fully described, and more particularly pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a shoe provided with fastenings embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a partly sectional view and side elevation of one of said fastenings, and sectional views of two eyelets with which it is engaged, and two pieces of leather or similar material in which said eyelets are fixed. Fig. 3 shows an under side plan View of a piece of material having an eyelet fixed thereto, and an under side plan view of the fastening having one end engaged with said eyelet. Fig. 4 is a sectional view of two pieces of material in each of which an eyelet is fixed, and a side view of one of said fastenings attached by one end to one of said pieces, and having its opposite end raised up away from the second of said pieces.

In the drawings, H, indicates a shoe and a, a, the flaps of the upper thereof to which fastenings or lacings of a shoe are ordinarily attached. The letter, a, in Figs. 2, 3, and e of the drawings indicates, in enlarged views, sections of said shoe-flaps or of other material upon which the below described fasteniugs may be used for uniting two parts or borders thereof, and in said figures the shoe fastening is also shown somewhat enlarged.

In each shoe-flap, near the adjoining borders thereof, are fixed, in the usual manner, eyelets, b, which eyelets constitute suitable receptacles for the heads of the below described fastening device, said eyelets being arranged in opposite rows at convenient distances apart,

as indicated by the separation of the fastening devices in Fig. 1. Said eyelets or any other suitable metallic ring, or socket-form of receptacle for the fastener-head may be used.

The said shoe or other fastening device, above referred to, consists of two metallic heads, 6, of substantially cylindrical form having several transverse slots, 0, extending from the outer end of said heads toward the neck thereof, whereby each head, c, has formed thereon a series of partially separated sections or leaves which are elastic and hence compressible to the end that the external diameter of each head may be reduced to the lesser internal diameter of an eyelet or other receptacle, into or through which it may be forced, and when passing to a certain point therein, or partially through it, be capable of expansion whereby the head becomes temporarily engaged therewith, as shown in Fig.2. The said two heads, 6, are connected by a uniting member or bar, D, of metal or other suitable material which extends between the parts which are fastened one to the other by the device, and a collar, 0, is formed between the extremities of said bar and the heads thereon and the latter are necked down or reduced in diameter at their junction with the under side of said collar to facilitate the said elastic action of the sections'of the heads. If desired the said bar, D, of the fastenings may be made separate from said heads and of flexible metal or other flexible or elastic material, and said heads be suitably secured thereto. The preferable construction, however, is that in which the entire fastening comprising the heads and their uniting element is composed of a single piece of suitable metal. The said collars, 0, provide suitable bearing surfaces for the fastening over the eyelets, Z7, as shown in Fig. l, and they regulate the degree of the entrance of the heads of the fastening within the said eyelets. The said eyelets, b, are secured in the borders of the shoe or other article in the usual manner and substantially as shown in Figs. 2 to at, inclusive.

In Fig. 2 the heads of the fastening are both shown to be detachable from the eyelets there shown in connection with said head, which provides for entirely removing the fastening from the shoe at pleasure or for disengaging one end of the fastening and permitting it to hang by its opposite end in the eyelet of the other flap. But should it be desired that one end of the fastening be so connected with one of the shoe flaps that it may be free to swing, but not to be drawn from the eyelet in which it swings, but still be free to have the opposite head of the fastening be connected with, and disconnected from, the opposite eyelet, the mode of attachment of the fastenings to one of the flaps, shown in Fig. 4, may be adopted. That is to say, the head of the fastening which is shown to be in engagement with one of the eyelets there shown has its leaf sections, ac, slightly spread, laterally, from the center of the head so that they extend sufficiently under the border of the eyelet to prevent the last named head from being withdrawn therefrom, but leaving the fastening free to be moved in the last named eyelet to permit of all requisite movements for engaging the free head of the fastening with the eyelet of the opposite flap, and disengaging it therefrom. This last described manner of attaching the fastening by one end to one of the shoe-flaps obviates the danger of losing any one of the fastenings accidentally.

It will be seen, by reference to Fig. 1, that the fastenings may be made of suitable Varying lengths according to the positions which they are required to occupy on the shoe or other article.

The within described fastenings are useful, as described, upon shoes, and they may also be used with equal facility and convenience upon gloves, cloaks, and other garments where similar fastenings are required.

What 1 claim as my invention is- As an article of manufacture a fastening device for shoes and analogous articles, consisting of two slotted, compressible and expansible heads of spherical form, combined with a uniting element extending between said heads, and a circular collar fixed at the junction of each end of said uniting element and the head thereat, said heads, collars, and uniting element being of united mechanical construction, substantially as set forth.

ERNEST F. SPICER.

WVitn esses:

H. A. CHAPIN, K. I. OLEMoNs. 

